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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23886922">Just What I Needed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/superfundsite'>superfundsite (orphan_account)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red Dwarf (UK TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode: s06e02 Legion, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Makeouts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:34:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,509</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23886922</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/superfundsite</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Rimmer gets his hard light drive, he begins to have some doubts about being a hard light hologram. Lister alleviates those doubts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave Lister/Arnold Rimmer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>68</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Just What I Needed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Requested by a friend in a Red Dwarf server, who wanted something fluffy, with hand holding, and an argument. This one's for you!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“C’mon, Rimmer. You’re solid now! Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but-god, you wouldn’t understand, you’re living-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rimmer, shut up, we’ve been on the same ship for ages now! Remember when you stole my body and made me wear a girdle?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Black card,” Rimmer hisses, and he folds his arms against his chest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No! No smegging card system, why are you so- mercurial about this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gee, Listy, however were you able to strike your two brain cells together to come up with such a big word?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up!” Lister’s tone rises. “Why’s it that every time you have something good happen to you, you think you don’t deserve it! You think you’re not worthy! Rimmer, it’s not healthy!” He stalks forwards, menacing somehow at his stature and in his studded leather jacket and heavy boots.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer gasps quietly as he feels Lister’s hot breath down the front of his shirt. His face feels warm, everything feels too warm. His collar itches, and Lister’s dark, sweet eyes stare into his. The hard light drive was certainly going bonkers, there was no way that this sensation could be so vivid. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t exactly be healthy if I’m dead, Lister, so leave me alone. If I want to,” Rimmer swallows hard, sweat visible on his forehead, “if I want to turn off the hard light drive, then that’s my own decision!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister shakes his head. “Rimmer, you’re not doing this of your own free will. You’re subjecting yourself to this because of some weird- hang up, and you’re going to regret it.” His dreads toss over his shoulders and Rimmer thinks he's lovely like that, before Lister grabs Rimmer’s hands in his own. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer lets out a little squeak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want to give this up? Touch, for the first time in years? Rimmer, every day I’ve seen you mope and whine about how you want nothing more than to touch, and now that you have it, you really want it gone?” Lister laughs softly, in disbelief. “I can’t believe that, Rimmer, and I don’t care how many times you say so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer feels like his head is on fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister’s hands are pleasantly cool against his, leather gloved and a bit rough. Rimmer can feel the callouses on his fingers, the bitten skin around the beds of his nails. His skin otherwise, is soft, and the worn leather of his gloves is cold against Rimmer’s feverish skin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>God, he’s sweating. He’s acutely aware of sweat sticking his shirt to his chest, starting to roll down the nape of his neck. He feels like sinking through the floor and never being seen again, when Lister squeezes his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rimmer, you’ve earned this. If it were anyone else, they’d have gone mad. You deserve good things, Rimmer.” Lister is so close now, leaning into him. His voice was soft and coaxing, and Rimmer feels his knees wobble as his brain tries to rationalize everything happening to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lister,” he breathes out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister stares at him with those shining brown eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lister, please, let go of me.” Rimmer’s voice cracks. He looks away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister inhales, he can hear it. It’s an angry, sharp breath drawn in, and huffed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If I do, will you promise me that I can hold you again?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer furrows his brow. “Wh-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister lets go of his hands, but instead of leaving Rimmer alone, he places his hands on his face, and drags him down into a kiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer’s eyes are wide in shock, and Lister’s are closed, as his mouth moves against Rimmer’s, noses smushed together uncomfortably.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eyes still wide, Rimmer gasps, and Lister’s tongue slips inside his mouth, hot, wet, and tasting like lager and spice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That just makes Rimmer make more noise, and tilt his head to the side. Lister likes that, the pressure off of their noses, and he adjusts his hands to cup Rimmer’s face more tenderly. Rimmer keeps staring, at his closed eyelids, the gentle curve of his brow, the little nick on his forehead, a dark spot there from too much sun-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His mind is going a hundred miles a minute, and he has to force himself to shut down his thought processes and enjoy it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s a strange sensation, getting kissed, with tongue, and against a wall by a man who stood almost a whole head shorter than him. He has to stoop for Lister, but in a way that doesn’t detract from the experience, but enhances it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lister keeps a hold on Rimmer’s jaw as they part, both of them gasping, before kissing again, and again. They get sloppier, not that Rimmer was good at it to begin with, but spit is beginning to slick their lips, and Rimmer’s head spins. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s all so much- so much contact, even through multiple layers of clothes, through gloves, each sensation jabbing into Rimmer’s consciousness, so hyper aware of every sensation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They slide down the wall together, one of Lister’s hands leaving Rimmer’s face to remain flat palmed against the wall, and the other to Rimmer’s waist. Rimmer moans as Lister strokes his side, roughly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It leaves a tingling feeling, especially when he slips  his hand under Rimmer’s jacket to touch his bare skin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Listy, please-” Rimmer pants, as Lister jams his hands beneath satiny quilted fabric, stroking and squeezing and grabbing. Rimmer’s legs spread, he’s painfully aroused, and Lister seems to know this as he settles between his legs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why would you not want this, Rimmer?” Lister asks, quietly, as he squeezes Rimmer’s chest, cupping at what little there is, and Rimmer gasps, scandalized. It reminds him of being in the parallel universe, but in this case, it’s welcome, it’s wanted. He likes it, he likes Lister, he likes it so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He likes the way Lister is nipping at his bottom lip as he scratches his belly lightly, before his hands wrap around his hips to squeeze his ass. Rimmer yelps and lifts his hips,  giving Lister the opportunity to hook Rimmer’s legs over his thighs, and bring him in closer, before hauling him up into his lap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer groans softly as the position is making some very interesting things rub right up against him, while his own is pressed against Lister’s belly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer squeezes his thighs out of habit. “Listy, I do want it, I want it very badly, and I want you. I was a fool, you were right-” He moans, rocking down against Lister, his hands on the smaller man’s shoulders, and eyes half lidded in his dazed lust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re no fool, Arn, you’re just- so thick, and I hate it, and I love you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You love me?”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“I haven’t put up with you for no reason, Arn. You make me happy, even when you don’t mean it. You’ve kept me from going mad.” Lister kisses Rimmer’s jaw, one of his hands leaving his hip to cup his chin and kiss him deeply again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I… I guess I’ve accomplished my goal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Forget the goal, I care about you, Arn.” Lister rolls hips hips leisurely, Rimmer almost in tears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sensation, the confession- if this was a dream, he never wanted to wake up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was good, this was right. The way they fit together, like pieces of a puzzle, Lister’s lips on the scar on his jaw, his fingers roaming over heated skin, his breath puffing over Rimmer’s cheek as Rimmer’s hands tangle and tug at his locks. The texture is comforting, felt-like and soft in his fingers, deceiving in appearance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rimmer drops his locks to run the pads of his fingers over Lister’s back, feeling his muscles ripple as he holds himself carefully to not crush Rimmer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he and Lister press closer together, legs tangling, clothes stripping off, joining them on the floor, Rimmer feels the tingling in his throat, the prickling in his eyes, all familiar, but new. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time, when he opens his mouth, a small laugh comes out, and Lister looks up, only to smile, and kiss him deeply, hands buried in his messy hair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Kryten and The Cat find them asleep in the cargo hold the next day, both nude, Rimmer laying on his stomach, head tilted to the side, Lister pressed right against him, tanned, strong arm slung over Rimmer’s slender, pale waist, neither of them say anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kryten sighs, almost melancholy, and The Cat’s eyes go wide. They quietly back out of the doorway, leaving them to their little love next among the barrels and boxes and strewn clothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once the door has been shut, The Cat lets out a yowl of glee. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won that bet! Pay up, tin man!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kryten shakes his head, “Well, at least the stakes weren’t too high.” He starts clunking his way down the corridor as The Cat skips and twirls ahead of him to the laundry room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He might have a long day of pressing silk suits ahead of him, but the content, relaxed looks on the faces of his friends, asleep in each other's arms, makes him smile to himself.</span>
</p>
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